Adipose tissue is recognized as a promising source of stem cells with at least multi-potent differentiation potential. Lipoasperate obtained during a lipoplasty procedure, such as lipo surgery, may be processed to prepare a so-called stromal vascular fraction (SVF) that is rich in stem cells. Processing to prepare SVF may include washing lipoasperate with saline solution, followed by enzymatic digestion of washed tissue using collagenase, and centrifuging digested material to prepare SVF in the form of a centrifuged pellet. Such collection and processing of tissue involves several steps with transfer of contents between different process containers for different tissue collection and processing steps, which is cumbersome and provides significant opportunities for error or contamination.
Adipose is widely used in fat grafting, also referred to as fat transfer, procedures. There are a variety of different fat grafting applications. One common fat graft application is breast augmentation or breast reconstruction. Adipose is also a promising delivery vehicle, for example to deliver stem cells or hormones with a fat graft. Current practices for collecting and processing adipose-containing tissue to prepare fat graft compositions do not adequately address needs across the variety of applications in an efficient manner.